For many decades surfboards and similar structures such as paddleboards have been constructed entirely or partially out of various kinds of wood. For example, early surfboards were simply long wooden planks. Later wooden surfboards were manufactured using a variety of construction techniques to reduce weight and improve performance. However, these construction techniques have remained challenging, both because they are difficult to undertake and because the resulting boards have remained extremely heavy and lack consistent performance characteristics.
For example, one of the most common techniques for making a wooden surfboard involves making an extremely large balsa wood block, cutting out the outline of the board and then shaping in board rocker by physically removing large amounts of wood. This structure is then knocked apart so that chambers can be drilled throughout the inner structure to reduce weight and improve buoyancy, and then the structure is reassembled into a finished surfboard. This construction process is difficult, wasteful, and the resulting boards are heavy and lack significant internal stored energy that provides improved performance. Thus, despite the aesthetic and cultural appeal of wooden boards, most current surfboards and paddleboards are constructed using a core material of foam or a similar lightweight, highly buoyant material, wrapped in fiberglass or similar materials.
The present invention is a wooden surfboard or paddleboard that is lighter, allows for greater design flexibility, and has significantly better performance than prior art wooden surfboards and paddleboards, as well as the construction method used to create such boards.